Senior Functional Safety Engineer

Rivianvw.tech; Berlin; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Competitive base salary

Job summary

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies in Berlin seeks a Release & Program Engineer focused on Functional Safety (FuSa) to join a hybrid on-site team. You will establish and maintain evidence pipelines, define sign-off criteria, and work with multiple domains to ensure timely, safe vehicle releases.

The role requires collaboration with PMT, suppliers and Brand partners, and strong data-driven dashboards to monitor safety performance. Köln, etc.

Qualifications

• Degree in Electrical/Electronic, Mechanical, Software, Systems, or Computer Engineering.
• 5+ years in automotive with 2+ years in functional safety or release roles.
• Knowledge of ISO 26262 and safety case argumentation.
• Experience with requirements management tools and Jira/Confluence.

Responsibilities

• Establish and improve processes and pipelines for functional safety release evidence across FuSa domains.
• Define release criteria and safety performance metrics for sign-off.
• Coordinate with PMT to align FuSa maturity with program milestones.
• Coordinate with FuSa domain leads and test teams to align evidence with release schedules.
• Develop and maintain automated dashboards for release readiness and evidence coverage.
• Track post-release safety indicators to close loop between pre-release evidence and real-world outcomes.
• Coordinate with suppliers and Brand partners to integrate safety artifacts into vehicle safety case.
• Collaborate with VWG FuSi process team to ensure ISO 26262 alignment across Rivian and VW programs.

Skills

Requirements management

Communication

Organizational skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Electronic, Mechanical, Software, Systems, or Computer Engineering

Tools

JAMA

DOORS

Jira

Confluence

Databricks

Tableau

Power BI

Job description

About Us

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies is a joint venture between two industry leaders with a clear vision for automotive's next chapter. From operating systems to zonal controllers to cloud and connectivity solutions, we're addressing the challenges of electric vehicles through technology that will set the standards for software-defined vehicles around the world.

The road to the future is uncharted. By combining our expertise across connectivity, AI, security and more, we'll map a new way forward. Working together, we'll create a future that's more connected, more intelligent, more sustainable for everyone.

Role Summary

Join a motivating team of experts developing Electric Vehicle technology through innovative zonal architecture development.

This position is based in our Berlin office and operates on a hybrid model, requiring at least three days per week on-site.

Responsibilities

• Establish and continuously improve the processes and technical pipelines that collect, organize, and present all traceable evidences required for Functional Safety release or sign-off reports (production and SW releases) across all FuSa domains (Dynamics, Body, Thermal, Energy, ADAS, Core).
• Define quantitative, evidence-based release criteria for FuSa sign-off - including thresholds for requirement verification coverage, safety mechanism test pass rates, diagnostic coverage metrics, ASIL-graded open-issue limits, and residual risk acceptance.
• Work closely with PMT to align FuSa maturity criteria to program milestones and gate reviews, providing per-domain risk profiles that surface gaps in evidence completeness and drive early visibility of domains at risk of missing gate criteria.
• Coordinate with FuSa domain leads, test automation, SW FuSa, HW FuSa, and PMT to align evidence deliverables against release schedules, driving pipeline efficiency so that sign-off can be given with confidence and minimal overhead on technical teams.
• Develop and maintain automated dashboarding that consolidates release readiness, requirement coverage, open safety issues, and post-release fleet safety performance - enabling data-driven release decisions and continuous calibration of release criteria over successive programs.
• Establish and track post-release safety performance indicators - including field failure rates against safety mechanism assumptions and safety-relevant DTC rates - to close the loop between pre-release evidence confidence and real-world outcomes.
• Coordinate with external suppliers and Brand partners to collect, validate, and integrate supplier-generated safety work products and SEooC arguments into the vehicle-level safety case.
• Work closely with the FuSa Process team and VWG Central FuSi process team to ensure release processes align with ISO 26262 compliance expectations across Rivian and VW programs.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Degree in Electrical/Electronic, Mechanical, Software, Systems, or Computer Engineering (or similar).
• Over 5 years of experience in the automotive industry (or equivalent), ideally at an OEM or Tier 1, with at least 2 years in functional safety, systems engineering, or release/program engineering roles.
• Proven knowledge of ISO 26262, particularly around work product management, confirmation reviews, safety case argumentation, and evidence-based release assessment.
• Strong experience with requirements management and traceability tools (e.g. JAMA, DOORS) and issue tracking tools (e.g. Jira, Confluence).
• Experience defining quantitative release criteria and safety performance metrics, and building reporting pipelines or dashboards to track them.
• Experience with data visualization tools (e.g. Databricks, Tableau, Power BI); ability to present risk and safety performance metrics to technical and leadership audiences.
• Good understanding of vehicle system functionality across multiple domains.
• Excellent organizational and coordination skills; ability to drive cross-functional alignment under tight release schedules.
• Good interpersonal and communication skills; ability to report clearly and concisely to senior management.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with supplier safety artifact management - SEooC arguments and supplier-provided safety cases integrated into a vehicle-level safety argument.
• Exposure to fleet monitoring, field quality data, or post-release safety performance tracking.
• Familiarity with CI/CD concepts and data pipeline tooling; scripting ability (e.g. Python) a plus.

Total Rewards

We build the exceptional - and we believe the people doing that work should be rewarded accordingly. In addition to a competitive base salary, full-time positions may be is eligible to participate in our annual company performance bonus program.

Payments are discretionary and not guaranteed; actual amounts depend on company results and the terms of the plan in effect, and require active employment at the time of payout. This r